Marble maze

ABSTRACT

This is a great hand eye coordination toy for kids and enhances motor skills; The serpentine slot is a relaxing eye watching pleasure; Gravity pulls the balls through the slotted path in the base of the toy; Just turn the toy 180 degrees and it repeats the process; This toy is for entertainment use only; A slotted path is for multiple balls to follow.

A wooden handheld toy has come about through a much bigger toy of the same characteristics. The first toy was about five feet tall and about twelve inches wide. Lots of kids played this when they came over for a birthday party or other family events. I made many other designs, patterns, too.

One day I thought this would be great as a party favor or small enough for my infant son to play with while sitting in the car when we travel. My first one was with redwood fence board and acrylic cover with round headed flat tip machine screws. I still have it in the shed. I finally had a machine shop in oakdale Calif., make a template for my router to make the serpentine path exact every time. I made the slot by hand first, and doesn't look perfect. I had to buy a plunge router to be able to use the fixture. That was almost $600. Being on permanent disability that hurt the pocket. I bought a guide bushing set from home depot so I could use it on the fixture Jared made at the machine shop for me. Some people at toy stores said I should get rid of the machine screws. Most kids liked to play with the round heads of the screws which was never a thought to me that they would want to touch. So, I looked around for some plastic fasteners. OSH was very expensive, about 0.14 cents each. I found a fastener company online who sent me a sample of some. I ordered one I liked which is about 0.02 cents each. I started spray painting them which made the slots too tight sometimes. That caused too much sanding. I wanted to get away from the sanding completely. I just went to a bigger sized router bit to get away from that hassle of sanding so much. I have to sand the corners of the plastic and wood base by hand too. Hopefully I can get a CNC router machine someday if these do good. Deburring the plastic is a tedious process too. I started putting stickers on these toys too. The plastic fasteners are getting painted too to match. I've tried many lengths of the toy and have finally found one that works good for children. Some adults have even played these toys for a while. This has been many years in the making and hopefully will be something people can enjoy for many years. 

1. This is a toy made from wood and plastic; The wood is the base structure of the toy; A clear polycarbonate plastic is the face of the toy which is very durable and lets you watch the balls follow the slotted path within the wood base. 